More good news for Mathieu van der Poel in his quest to add Mountain Biking World Championship to his collection: "I am sure that Mathieu can do it"
Mountain Bike
Mathieu van der Poel, the Dutch cycling superstar, is no stranger to world titles. With six cyclocross world championships, one road, and one gravel title to his name, there is only one major prize missing from his illustrious collection: the Mountain Biking World Championship. Van der Poel himself admits that this elusive title still plays on his mind.
In 2025, his path to the mountain biking crown could be slightly easier, thanks to a new UCI rule. The rule allows riders ranked in the top 10 of another cycling discipline to start at least from the fifth row at the Mountain Bike World Championships. This means Van der Poel, currently ranked fifth in the UCI rankings for both road and cyclocross, will not need to compete in numerous UCI mountain biking events to secure a favourable starting position.
The new regulation, implemented after the Mountain Bike World Championships in Glasgow, provides a significant advantage for multi-discipline riders like Van der Poel. For the upcoming championships in the Swiss Valais, the Dutchman can already count on starting from the fifth row, even though he currently has no UCI points in mountain biking.
National coach Gerben de Knegt commented on the situation in an interview with Sporza, saying, "It is true that Mathieu currently has zero UCI points in mountain biking. So he will not start at the very front. Even if Mathieu rode two World Cups, he would not end up in the top 100 of the UCI rankings."
While the new rule helps, De Knegt highlighted the challenges Van der Poel faces in his quest for the mountain biking title.
"I am sure that Mathieu can do it, but at some point before the World Championships he will have to get the feeling that he can become world champion," De Knegt explained.
He also noted the level of competition Van der Poel would face, pointing out the dominance of British rider Tom Pidcock, "It’s been a while since Mathieu has ridden mountain bike at the highest level. Tom Pidcock is the two-time Olympic champion, you can’t beat him that easily," said De Knegt.
so, tom could dedicate himself to CX all year, every year and probably never beat mathieu in a cyclocross world championship, barring a crash or injury or whatever. does pidcock have that kind of advantage over van der poel in XCO, or is that a gap mvdp can close even at this latter stage of mathieu’s career?
i’m ashamed to admit that i really don’t know enough about mtb and xco to know mathieu’s chances of winning world’s if he dedicates his season to that discipline once the spring classics are over. anyone want to take a moment to enlighten me i’d appreciate your take on it.
It’s very difficult to say now since he’s hardly ever raced over the last 5-6 years. Had he continued when he was good at it he’d most definitely have won it at some point, the type of course playing a decisive role. But business dictated he should focus more on road racing. Much as he tries, you can’t be everywhere at once and win it all and there are only so many years to a career.
MVP has already benefited from this rule at a MTB World Championships. The UCI amended the rules a day or two before the 2023 MTB XCO World Champs in Glasgow, Scotland. The rule was changed at the last minute so that MVP and Sagan started further up the grid to supposedly make for a better race for the fans. However, it made little difference as MVP crashed about 3 turns in on the start loop and withdrew from the race.
Just in
Play for FREE! Fantasy Tour of Flanders
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
The climbs of the 2025 Tour of Flanders
Popular news
Latest comments
- if there is an actual weakness in wout even when completely healthy, it’s that he’s in his head too often. this has been pointed out many times by much more acute observers of cycling than ME, certainly. it may be that he’s been like this since he was a little kid. we are who we are. or that he was shaped by having faced van der poel SOOO many times. mvdp has zero second thoughts. he wastes no time at all on doubt. that has, in the past, led him to do some pretty insane things and make mistakes that wout would never have committed. but it also makes him a killer. you can see wout’s split seconds of doubt and hesitation everywhere in their head to head battles. those hesitations spill over into other races at times like dwars, when doubt creeps in. i believe that currently he is still coming back from physical problems due to injuries, but even when he’s full strength the mental game is an area of potential concern, AND potential improvement.OCexile03-04-2025
- Not only the public, just about every analyst and commentator had been piling it on. Under the circumstances I’d even say he’s showing real character. Not sure likeable Tadej would manage as well during a longer rough patch.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- Took a while but we finally have a more nuanced analysis.Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- If I remember right, it was those same hungry journalists selling us a different story less than a year ago about the bleak future of Dutch (men’s) cycling with no possible successor for MVDP ;-)Mistermaumau03-04-2025
- Good, hopefully Jonas goes also so we get a nice duelvappaxbipmv03-04-2025
- right? i think it’s hungry journalists that fuel this, and i understand the jam they can be in trying to create stories, but you’d hate to think ANYONE is failing to appreciate how RARE someone like van der poel is (or how LUCKY we are to have both mvdp and pog racing at the same time). a little perspective is a good thing…OCexile03-04-2025
- Anyone know how long that 213km ride took? Coz without that the segment speeds don’t reveal anything surprising. If it took him Less than 5h ok but otherwise it was just some interval training for him.Jumpyjohn03-04-2025
- Hinault was even lighter than Pog at 62 kg when he won PR in 1981, beating Roger van Vlaeminck no less (albeit at the fag end of the latter's career), so it can be done.Cooldude03-04-2025
- Having to shoulder too much pressure from the Belgain public too much that he made a tactical mistake. That's what public pressure does to you. Poor Wout! Hopefully, lady luck befalls him soon.
KerisVroom03-04-2025 - If he's very lucky maybe he can podium a Tour one season, I certainly don't believe he can win it, evervappaxbipmv03-04-2025